Polymir resumed LDPE production

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Polymir (Novopolotsk, Belarus), part of JSC "Naftan", has resumed its production of low density polyethylene (LDPE) after shutdown for a scheduled turnaround, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

The plant's customers said Polymir resumed production at its second LDPE line (158 grade) on 13 November after a long scheduled maintenance. The outage began in late September and was originally planned for 20 days. The second line's annual production capacity is 65,000 tonnes.

As MRC reported earlier, the first line (workshops No.101 and 102) was taken off-stream for maintenance on 3 May, 2018, and the outage lasted slightly more than two weeks.

Polymir (part of Naftan) is Belarus' largest petrochemical company, producing a wide range of chemical products, such as low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylic fibres, products of organic synthesis, hydrocarbon fractions, etc. Polymir was founded in 1968. The producer uses technologies of the largest foreign companies from Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Italy (Courtaulds, Asahi Chemical Co. Ltd, Kanematsu Gosho, SNIA BPD, etc.), as well as the developments of scientific research institutes and design institutes of the CIS countries. The plant's annual production capacity is 130,000 tonnes.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Praxair, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Linde plc, has announced it has signed a long-term agreement to supply ultra-high purity nitrogen to Samsung’s world-class semiconductor facility in Hwaseong, South Korea, as per the company's press release.

This is the fifth plant Praxair will build at this site to help enable Samsung to meet increased global semiconductor demand.

The plant will supply Samsung’s facility with high purity nitrogen and is expected to start up in late 2019. Additionally, the company will install multiple purifiers and a new pipeline system to support the project.

"Praxair has been a reliable partner to Samsung for over four decades," said B.S. Sung, president of Praxair Korea. "We are proud to continue to support their growth as global demand for electronics intensifies. This project increases our density in the region and positions us for future expansion."

Earlier this year, Praxair announced two other long-term agreements with Samsung affiliates in South Korea, one to supply another of Samsung Electronics’ world-scale semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek and a second to supply Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ facility in Busan.

And in July 2017, as MRC informed earlier, Praxair, Inc. announced the start-up of a new air separation plant to supply 700 tons per day of nitrogen to Samsung’s display manufacturing complex in Tangjeong, South Korea.

Praxair, Inc. is a leading industrial gas company in North and South America and one of the largest worldwide. With market capitalization of approximately USD40 billion and 2017 sales of USD11 billion, the company employs over 26,000 people globally and has been named to the Dow Jones World Sustainability Index for 16 consecutive years. Praxair produces, sells and distributes atmospheric, process and specialty gases, and high-performance surface coatings. The company's products, services and technologies are making our planet more productive by bringing efficiency and environmental benefits to a wide variety of industries, including aerospace, chemicals, food and beverage, electronics, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, primary metals and many others.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) has scheduled month-long maintenance for November at its 140,000 barrels per day (bpd) condensate splitter in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reported Reuters with reference to industry sources.

The planned maintenance will include the integration of a new crude distillation unit (CDU) pipeline that is expected to come onstream late next year, the sources said.

The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media. ENOC did not immediately reply to an email from Reuters on the matter.

The maintenance comes as companies including ENOC and South Korea's Hanwha Total are grappling with feedstock condensate supply tightness due to sanctions against Iran which will take effect this month.

ENOC had chartered at least one vessel to store jet fuel to ensure supply to airlines in Dubai, sources told Reuters last month.

It also has onshore tanks to store refined oil products, including gasoline and feedstock.

Separately, ENOC last month announced that it would be constructing a jet fuel pipeline that can carry 2,000 cubic meters of the aviation fuel per hour to Al Maktoum International Airport.

The 16.2-km (10-mile) jet fuel pipeline is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2020, it said on its website.

We remind that, as MRC wrote before, in December 2017, Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co Ltd announced plans to spend USD331.29 MM on a new factory in South Korea to increase polyethylene (PE) output by 400 Mtpy by 2019.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) - November contract price of propylene in Europe was agreed down EUR10/tonne below the level of the October. However, practically all European producers announced a roll-over of October export polypropylene (PP) prices for November shipments to the CIS markets, according to ICIS-MRC Price report.

Negotiations over November prices of European PP began last week. All market participants reported producers' desire to maintain their export prices of propylene polymers at the last month's level, despite the decrease of EUR10/tonne in propylene prices in the region. At the same time, one of the producers, on the contrary, raised prices by EUR20/tonne, but this affected the lower price limit.

Deals for November shipments of homopolymer PP were discussed in the range of EUR1,185-1,240/tonne FCA, which virtually corresponds to October with the exception of the lower limit ofthe prices.

Deals for block propylene copolymers (PP block copolymers) were discussed in the range of EUR1,250-1,310/tonne FCA, while in October deals were done in the range of EUR1,230-1,310/tonne FCA.

Many companies reported no restrictions on this month's PP exports.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Nigeria's state oil firm NNPC could sign crude-for-product deals with Shell and ExxonMobil, similar to one signed with BP last week, reported Reuters with reference to a senior NNPC official's statement.

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced last Wednesday that it had signed such a deal with BP and would provide more details later.

"Unfortunately, Shell and ExxonMobil exited the downstream sector in Nigeria a couple of years ago but they are coming back for this particular arrangement, because it’s an opportunity for them to get crude and sell their products to the refineries," NNPC’s chief operating officer for upstream, Bello Rabiu, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African oil and gas conference in Cape Town.

NNPC imports about 70 percent of Nigeria's fuel needs, mainly gasoline, via swap contracts. NNPC has contracts, known as direct sale direct purchase agreements, with 10 consortiums that include trading houses Vitol, Trafigura , Mercuria and Total.

It extended the existing contracts to June 2019 but several trading sources in the consortiums said they had requested new price terms.

Rabiu said NNPC hoped in 2019 to emulate savings of around USD1 billion seen in 2016 with its crude-for-product swaps, which he said would likely end once Africa's top crude producer revamps its refineries.

"If our refineries are back, which we want in the next 18 months, this thing will stop. So, all these things are just stop-gap measures, but the key issue is that we wanted to import at the least cost before our refineries come back onstream," he said.

NNPC is in the final stages of talks with consortiums including top traders, energy majors and oil services companies to revamp its long-neglected oil refineries in an effort to reduce its reliance on imported fuel.

"It is on track and I believe if we don't sign a final deal (on the project to upgrade refineries) this month of November we will surely sign in December," Rabiu said.

As MRC wrote before, in March 2016, Royal Dutch Shell Plc was lining up assets for a USD30 billion divestment program that may extend from the US and Trinidad to India following its record takeover of BG Group Plc.

Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom.Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the fourth largest company in the world as of 2014, in terms of revenue, and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC